Avery's T-shirtsTaylar sutton

The first amendment is the freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, petition. This case involves a former Connecticut high school student who was punished for a blog entry who lost her first amendment rights in federal court over her online speech over censorship of students t-shirts at her school. The student called the principal names. They ruled in favor of the schools officials on the blog claim. School officials had argued that they were simply enforcing a “general ban on electioneering materials” rather than censoring a particular political viewpoint. The judge also noted that because school officials had barred Avery from running for office, it was wrong to characterize the T-shirts as electioneering materials in the first place. They further rejected the qualified-immunity defense on this claim, because it was clearly established that students had a right to engage in nondisruptive, nonoffensive political speech on school grounds. She would have to prove that her speech was chilled and also will have to prove the amount of damages, if any, that she suffered as a result of any First Amendment violation that is found.